FINAL TESTIMONIES
BY
KARL BARTH
edited by Eberhard Busch
translated by Geoffrey W. Bromiley
This book is a translation from the German edition of Karl Barth, Letzte Zeugnisse, published by Theologischer Verlag, Zürich. It appears by permission of Theologischer Verlag.
Wipf and Stock Publishers
199 West 8th Avenue, Suite 3
Eugene, Oregon 97401
Final Testimonies
By Barth, Karl
Copyright©1977 Theologischer Verlag Zurich
ISBN: 1-59244-402-4
EISBN: 978-1-4982-7075-5
Publication date 10/21/2003
Previously published by Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1977
English translation copyright©1977, William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.
CONTENTS
MUSIC FOR A GUEST—A RADIO BROADCAST
RADIO SERMONS CATHOLIC AND EVANGELICAL
STARTING OUT, TURNING ROUND, CONFESSING
Particular weight and solemnity has always been attached to last words. It is for this reason rather than for any outstanding merit or originality that Karl Barth’s final testimonies to the gospel command our interest. What were the things on his mind when life was obviously drawing to a close? What did he most want to say or stress within the confines of his specific assignments? Where is the essential core of his thinking and message?
Perhaps the first of the chosen pieces brings us closest to the heart of the matter. When asked to testify to what Christ means to him, Barth answers clearly and boldly but refuses to be pressed into a purely individualistic or private statement. Christ means to him what he means to all others. Even in the most personal confession he thus preserves the sense of community, not just in the sense of “for me and for all others too,” but in the sense of “for all others and for me too.”
The other statements express no less typical Barthian themes. Love of Mozart goes hand in hand with a first and last conviction that theological work serves the preaching and pastoral ministry. Authentic liberalism is to be espoused and not opposed, and church matters, including theology, are for all Christians, not for clergy as distinct from laity. The Roman and Reformed churches can grow together ecumenically as the former develops the ministry of the word and the latter the complementary ministry of the sacrament. The pattern of church life must be one of ongoing moving forward which is also a moving back, of constant exodus and conversion, in which the abiding factor is confession of the one Lord Jesus Christ.
The old humor is there, the element of surprise, a little more reminiscing, as one expects in the old, and the kindly spirit which gradually replaced the early pugnacity. The words are simple, and they add little to what Barth has said in his previous writings. But behind them stands a wealth of thought and experience endowing them with a peculiar poignancy and force.
It is fitting—perhaps even symbolic—that the last of these final pieces breaks off in the middle of a sentence. Barth had always recognized that theology can never achieve a final utterance. His masterpiece, the Church Dogmatics, remained a magnificent but uncompleted fragment. The last word, after all, cannot be spoken by us. It has to be spoken to us by him who speaks the last word as well as the first.
The words of Karl Barth are ended, but the Word of God which he attempted to serve lives and endures forever.
Pasadena
G. W. Bromiley
The Karl Barth Society of North America was founded October 1972 to promote “a critical and constructive theology in continuity with the work of Karl Barth.” Among its various activities, the Society is committed to encouraging and, where possible, assisting the publication of Barth’s posthumous works. Accordingly I am grateful to be able to congratulate the Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Company for making Barth’s Final Testimonies available to English readers.
It is fitting that the translation of this little book, whose importance far exceeds its brevity, should come from the hand of Geoffrey F. Bromiley. He, far more than anyone else, has been responsible for the translation of the thirteen monumental volumes of the Church Dogmatics. Beginning with Volume I, 2, he shared the editorship with Professor T. F. Torrance. He was the sole translator of the last five volumes, and he translated large portions of three of the preceding volumes. The church of Jesus Christ and the English-speaking world are immeasurably indebted to the tireless and unselfish labors of Professor Bromiley.
As for Barth’s Final Testimonies, we can only echo the felicitous sentiments expressed by the translator in his preface.
Arthur C. Cochrane
President,
The Karl Barth Society of North America
I HAVE BEEN ASKED TO REPLY IN A KIND OF TESTIMONY to the question what Jesus Christ is for me. The request jolted me at first, for I felt reminded painfully of the earlier question of Pietists and the present-day question of theological existentialists. Nevertheless, this does not alter the fact that in its own way and its own place this, too, is a serious question. I will try to answer it with the necessary brevity.
How can I do so, of course, without saying at once and consistently, in a way that determines and controls everything from A to Z, that Jesus Christ is for me precisely—no more, no less, and no other than—what he was, is, and will be, always and everywhere, for the church which he has called together and commissioned in all its forms, and for the whole world according to the message which he has entrusted to the church? If I were to single out something special that he is for me, I should be missing what in fact he is specifically for me. He is for me in particular precisely what before me, outside me, and alongside me, he is for all Christians and indeed for the whole world and for all men.